Just your average day in Night Vale
by The Optimistic Hufflepuff
Summary: Cecil Palmer. Well respected radio host to most of the community of Night Vale, but his boyfriend Carlos knows better. He knows Cecil's dark secret and soon many other victims will too... A Night Vale Fanfiction Warnings for horror and abuse. We don't own anything.
1. Chapter 1, Faceless old Woman

"There's someone I want you to meet," Cecil said, opening the garage door and pushing a wheelchair in "Grandma, this is my boyfriend, Carlos."

As always, Cecil's grandma sat silently and stared ahead, not moving an inch. How could she? She had been paralysed for years.

"Now you be nice to her, she's paralysed...see," he hit her abruptly on her arm and she made a low grunting noise as pain flashed through her eyes.

The same pain flickered across Carlos' face but he soon collected himself as he knew that showing weakness would only make matters worse. He grimaced through his gag. Maybe if he pretended to smile now, Cecil wouldn't punish him as much later….

Cecil just chuckled as if everything was as it should be; as if it was normal. But nothing was normal, no matter how much Cecil wanted it to be. Still chuckling, he moved over to Carlos to caress his taught face.

Carlos tried play along... as if he wanted it...but the coldness of Cecil's face was enough to make even the most vigilant of scientists tremble with fear. The worst part was that he knew what was to come. Carlos alwaysknew what was coming.

"Now now, my love," Cecil stroked Carlos' face as a tear managed to escape and run down his face "Don't be scared- she's lovely really... I'm sure she will love you as much as I do."

Putting on a brave face, Carlos managed to nod slightly in a way he hoped was reassuring but the tears continued to roll silently down to his gag, dampening it with salty water. Fortunately,

Cecil didn't seem to notice. Either that or he just didn't care.

Snapping into action, Cecil returned to his grandmother, wheeling her around to the operating table.

"You see, my dear Carlos, Grandma hasn't been a whole lot of fun recently , so I'm going to do a little experiment to see if we can liven her up a bit. She doesn't mind, do you?"

Cecil's Grandmother couldn't reply but she looked across the room at Carlos, with helplessness and fear in her eyes, pleading him for the help which he couldn't provide.

Seemingly oblivious to the traumatised individuals sharing his garage, Cecil continued to set out his medical equipment, humming tunelessly as he worked. Cecil's Grandmother could only have wished for him to take longer, but it was not her lucky day. And soon, all too soon, Cecil was lifting the frail woman from her chair and onto the cold metallic slab.

Carlos groaned slightly and winced as Cecil dropped her limp but heavy body on the table, landing with a sickening thud. He looked away but, this time, his captor noticed immediately.

"Come on Carlos dear, you'll miss the best bit!"

He forced himself to turn around to watch the scene unfold before his own eyes, knowing that the '_best bit' _would be coming all too soon.

Cecil chuckled darkly and returned to his patient. Reaching for his scalpel, Cecil traced his blade along her face as if working out which incision to make first.

"Oh, almost forgot," Erratically dropping his scalpel to the floor with a clatter, he hurried across the room to a set of clothes hooks on the wall, he pulled a filthy, blood stained lab coat off the closest peg "Safety first."

"Now, where were we?" He picked up the scalpel, pressing it against his Grandmother's hairline with a flourish. "Hmmm what should we do to you…?"

Carlos could have sworn he had seen her finger twitch, just slightly. But he would never know. What happened next ensured that.

Cecil delicately, with practiced hands, slit his Grandmothers pale face down the middle. Scarlet blood dripped slowly down her aged face, pooling into her grey hair on the slab, turning it back to it's original red hue.

Carlos tried to scream into his gag, but nothing but a strange muffled noise came out, Cecil's head snapped up as he was momentarily distracted from his handy work.

"What was that dear?" He whined as he walked over to the helpless Carlos, whose head had jolted back in an attempt to save his sanity.

Carlos shook his head manically to try and convince the man before him that nothing was wrong, and that he saw they kind of thing everyday, though he knew it was too late.

"Sorry I couldn't hear you." Cecil knelt down to look into Carlos' eyes "You know I love you… you can tell me anything, so what did you say, love?"

Carlos just continued to shake his head frantically, knowing that even if he could speak, he wouldn't know what to say.

"You don't have a problem with this do you, my most beautiful Carlos?"

Carlos continued to shake his head.

"And…" Cecil paused and wiped the blood off the scalpel on his lab coat, taking great care that it was perfectly clean before holding it up to the light to examine "You do you love me don't you, Carlos?" he directed the question at the instrument in his hand but his hushed tone made it clear who he was really talking to.

Carlos quickly started to nod his head. Too quickly.

"I thought so" He grinned and stood up, walking back to the woman on his table, taking very slow, deliberate steps that echoed around the cold room.

Reverting back to his mindless humming, Cecil made another incision across his Grandmother's face, creating a bloody cross. Her eyes screamed in pain as blood blurred her peripheral vision, staining her irises a new colour.

A squeal escaped past Carlos' gag but Cecil didn't notice, he was too wrapped up in his Grandmother's current predicament to see anything except what was right in front of him.

And what was right in front of him was a woman slowly bleeding out from her face, growing paler with time, as her blood supply slowly pooled around her limp body, until her skin was translucent.

The blood in her hair was slowly congealing, forcing her hair together into thick, sticky clumps, more had collected in the wrinkles in her face and in the bags under her eyes. Useless skin curled up around the wounds, exposing her veins and bones to the metallic air in the room.

Cecil took a step back to admire his new masterpiece, a slight grin crept onto his face as he wiped his hands on his labcoat.

"See, she can be fun! I knew she would have her uses."

Carlos nodded- if he had upset Cecil now, it wouldn't just be his hair at stake.


	2. Chapter 2, Glow Cloud

Cecil turned off the lights in the garage, sending the cold room into darkness. He stepped out into the dimming outside and locked the door behind him.

A lone pizza delivery man strode down the street, whistling cheerily to himself. Cecil raised his hand in a slight wave of acknowledgement to the worker, smiling as he did so. The pizza delivery man nodded in response, carrying on his journey. Everyone in town liked Cecil. I mean, what was not to like?

He was so well mannered and even took time off work to look after his sick Grandmother after she had the car crash.

Thinking nothing more of the small encounter, Cecil walked across the garden into his house. Inside, Cecil's footsteps echoed around the kitchen as he approached a cupboard and pulled out a pill bottle. "Prolixin" the label read .

Cecil sighed and closed the cupboard, Prolixin still in his hand. He needed to do this for Carlos, he reminded himself. He picked up the glass of cool water from shelf next to the cupboard door and stared at it.

_For Carlos._

Then he popped the pill out of its little foil casing and downed the substance in one.

He shuddered as the cold liquid dragged down his throat, leaving a stale aftertaste. He checked his watch, it was the only true time piece in Night Vale, given to him by his perfect Carlos on their anniversary. It was half ten; his show started soon.

Cecil hurried out the front door, briefcase in one hand and quickly poked his head around the garage door.

"I'll be back later, darling," he said to Carlos. Although he got nothing more than a stifled scream from his lover, Cecil still smiled before bolting the heavy metal door shut and continued his commute to the radio station.

The town members smiled at him as he walked past them, some of them waved as usual and he managed to arrive at the station without much incident.

However, just as he was about to air, he noticed a strange glowing in the corner of his eye. Although he managed to ignore it for a little while, just brushing it off as his imagination. So he continued into the station, only slightly perturbed.

"_The desert seems vast, even endless, and yet scientists tell us that somewhere, even now, there is snow. __Welcome to Night Vale" _

He let the soft music consume him for a second but it couldn't last long, the flickering glow was back, and this time he was sure he hadn't imagined it. Soon Cecil could see nothing but a looming, colourful orb… no… _cloud_ filling the sky outside his studio window.

Cecil blinked several times but there was most definitely a giant glowing cloud filling the sky above night vale, raining, as clouds tend to do; however from what he could recall, clouds didn't generally rain large, dead animals onto the city.

The music stopped and he fumbled with the microphone for a second before returning to the news- after all he was a respectable news reporter that couldn't make a fool of himself in front of the entire town!

"_The Night Vale tourism boards 'visitable Night Vale' campaign has kicked off with posters encouraging folks to take their family on a scenery filled jaunt through the trails of Radon Canyon…"_

He let his smooth radio voice slip into muscle memory and he monotonously read out the news fed to him from the station management, as per usual. So despite a seemingly omnipotent cloud glowing over Night Vale, everything was as it should have been.

Once the broadcast came to a close, Cecil went into the men's bathroom to splash some water onto his face. Come on. This was Night Vale. The most ordinary town ever. How could there we a glowing cloud dropping dead animals on everyone? It simply wasn't logical.

_Meow._

Cecil turned to face the hovering cat behind him and smiled softly.

"Hi Khoshekh," he mused, petting the animal with mild interest "You don't think I'm crazy do you?"

_Meow, _Khoshekh replied noncommittally.

Cecil sighed, stuffing his hands back into his blazer pockets, absent-mindly toying with the pill box he had forgotten to return to his medicine cabinet that morning.

Khoshekh brushed against Cecil's hand affectionately, causing the box to fall onto the slightly damp tiles that can be found in any public bathroom. When he picked up the box again the thin, wet, cardboard fell through and the foil trays and a small information leaflet fell out into Cecil's out-stretched hand. He caught a glimpse of the bold _health and safety _warning on the top of the instructions;

"_SIDE EFFECT MAY INCLUDE: NAUSEA, HALLUCINATIONS AND INFATUATION, if you turn into a psycho that's not our problem, you don't know where we live but you're not hard to find…_

_Sponsored by StrexCorp. Believe in a Smiling God:)"_

He crumpled up the damp paper, took two short strides to the door, and tossed it in the bin as the bathroom door closed behind him.


End file.
